Talenthouse co-founder Q&A: Linking creators with brands

Maya Bogle tells StreamDaily why artists come first and the benefits of a well-defined creative brief.

When Dire Straits founder Mark Knopfler recently wanted to make a video for his new single Wherever I Go, the singer and songwriter turned to Talenthouse, a London-based agency that provides opportunities for creators to collaborate with brands and icons, to find a filmmaker for his new video.

The contest is ongoing, but Talenthouse, describing itself as “the world’s creative department,” has been pairing brands and artists for almost six years, with corporate clients ranging from Universal Pictures and adidas to Microsoft and Marriot.

Talenthouse co-founder Maya Bogle spoke via e-mail to StreamDaily about the agency’s mandate and its future.

When and why was Talenthouse started?

Talenthouse launched in November 2009 and is the brainchild of Amos Pizzey — an artist himself. Amos knew first-hand how important it is for artists to have a creative outlet and to access opportunities to have their work seen, to gain recognition, to collaborate and of course to make money. We built Talenthouse as an online collaboration platform for artists to access opportunities to work with famous artists, icons and brands, as well as to showcase their work, gain recognition and to make money from our brand partners.

Our belief is that brands can also benefit by creating opportunities for artists as they will access a powerful influencer network and an infinite stream of original creative work and stories to populate their social channels. Effectively we are encouraging our brand partners to become patrons of the arts.

What was Talenthouse’s first success story?

Our first success story was for Tamir Baasanjav, a designer from Mongolia, who made $3,000 from the opportunity we hosted from adidas eyewear to create a new design for their ski goggles. This was more money than Tamir had made in a year and allowed him to buy more materials to focus on his passion for design.

How does the hookup between artist and brand work? Does Talenthouse broker a deal between them or simply make the introduction?

We connect artists to brands in a couple of different ways – one way is through the “Creative Invite” – essentially a creative brief set by a brand inspiring artists to submit original work in exchange for an opportunity to collaborate with the brand. Artists always retain ownership of their work and will always benefit from the experience of responding to a tightly defined brief, the exposure the brand and Talenthouse gives them and of course the opportunity of being selected.

We are also working with brands who are keen for us to identify artists that they can commission for future projects — a kind of “black-book” approach — where the work isn’t socially shared, just pre-existing work from the artist that the brand can look at and decide who they’d like to commission.

What’s the difference between Talenthouse and a regular agency?

Talenthouse differs from conventional agencies as we are a global platform connecting artists and brands via digital with social being key to our proposition.

What is Talenthouse’s plan for expansion both tangibly and philosophically?

Talenthouse now has offices in L.A., London, Mumbai, Dubai and Munich. We plan to open offices in many more countries and one day, physical Talenthouses – offering work spaces, mentoring, studio space etc for our community. We would love to become the ultimate destination for artists to showcase their work and access opportunities for discovery, recognition and income and for brands to pioneer a new way to support artists whilst connecting to consumers via our innovative platform. We also want to entertain the world at large who love the stunning content that we share from our talented creative community across our social channels every day.